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On citizen-media website Stomp this week, Star Bloggers were asked to write on their reaction should a dormitory housing 1,000 foreign workers be built opposite their home.
Here is one Star Blogger's view:
UNFORTUNATELY, the prospect of 1,000 Bangladeshi, Thai or Indian workers popping up suddenly opposite my home is not exactly going to bring a smile to my face.
First, I'll watch my property price plummet. In my opinion, this is inevitable and one cannot deny this will happen.
I do see a few of these foreign workers here and there due to new houses being built around my neighbourhood, and, honestly, I'm quite all right with having them around.
However, 1,000 of them permanently living opposite me?
They will outnumber even us residents!
I'm sorry, but I do not want to be living in a construction- worker town.
Having paid top dollar to live in a nice place, I would be aghast to know I would now have to come home every day to lorries ferrying labourers who are dirty from construction work.
It'd be worse if these men get drunk or loiter around.
I don't know exactly how bad it will really get. Maybe my fears are unfounded, but the chances, from hearsay, are there.
Then, there is the leering.
It is highly disturbing and unsettling to be mentally undressed again and again.
I am speaking from experience and also from what I have heard from other women.
Time to up and move, baby.
I don't hate foreign workers nor am I racist in any way, but what I do believe is that choosing a place to live is a very personal preference.
Home-buyers look at every aspect of a potential home's environment, whether it is potentially annoying neighbours, or if a house is in front of a noisy main road.
In the same vein, a dormitory housing 1,000 foreign workers opposite a potential home is not quite going to cut it.
Foreign workers do the jobs we Singaporeans are loathe to do, so we really should appreciate them and make them feel more welcome.
Yet, how many of us would not baulk at the idea of living opposite so many of them?
Sad to say, I'm a hypocrite when it comes to this.
myp@sph.com.sg
The writer is a Star Blogger with Stomp, The Straits Times' social-networking and citizen-media website.
This blog post first appeared on Stomp.
Go to www.stomp.com.sg to read what the other Star Bloggers have to say about this issue
For more my paper stories click here.
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